Aldo Zanoni is a commuter from Riverbend, Alta., bikes to work every day. According to the National Household Survey about 1.1 million people in Canada chose to cycle or walk to work in 2011, representing about seven per cent of all commuters.

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OTTAWA — Gridlock is as bad as you think it is: The total estimated number of Canadians commuting to work in 2011 was pegged at 15.4 million, up from 14.7 million in 2006, according to new data released by Statistics Canada.

About 11.4 million of those commuters drove to work, up from 10.6 million in 2006, according to figures released Wednesday from the 2011 National Household Survey.

“It shows there’s still more to do in terms of making alternative options more attractive,” said Kathryn Grond, an analyst with the Pembina Institute which focuses on environmental issues. But she added the numbers should be viewed “with caution,” as the voluntary nature of the national study opens it up to a higher error rate than the mandatory long-form census it replaced.

Indeed, Statistics Canada has also warned that its numbers from 2011 should be viewed with caution in some areas. But it believes that data provide a good general look at many areas of Canadian life.

The new survey revealed a slight decrease in the percentage of people who either walk or cycle to work. About 1.1 million people in Canada chose this option in 2011, representing about seven per cent of all commuters: 5.7 per cent who walked and 1.3 per cent who cycled.

In 2006, about 6.4 per cent of commuters walked and 1.3 per cent cycled, according to Statistics Canada census data from that year.

Among this group is Edmonton businessman Aldo Zanoni, who’s been cycling 13 kilometres to work almost year-round for the past four years. The 57-year-old’s morning commute takes him about 40 minutes in the summer, and as long as 90 minutes in the winter, and has gradually evolved from being a way to lose weight to a labour of love.

“There’s one fewer car on the road as result of me choosing to ride my bicycle,” said Zanoni. “It’s become my way of starting and ending my day on a psychological and physical high.”

Wet conditions are the only thing that keeps Zanoni off his bike in the mornings. Even then, he doesn’t opt for his car but rather a combination of light rail transit and the bus in order to get downtown.

“I’ll do -30 (C), and I’ll do six inches of new snow, but I won’t ride in the rain if I have a choice,” he said, laughing. “I despise the rain.”

Victoria residents appear to be the most active Canadian commuters in terms of walking or cycling, with 10 per cent of commuters walking to work and about six per cent cycling.

Kingston, Ont., Halifax, Peterborough, Ont., and Sherbrooke, Que., are also among the top five in terms of percentages of walkers, while Kelowna, B.C., Ottawa-Gatineau, Kingston and Winnipeg were among the top five in terms of percentages of cyclists.

Statistics Canada estimated that the number of people using public transit to get to work had increased by about one percentage point in the last five years, to 12 per cent of commuters in 2011. Pembina’s Grond expected better, given the strides being made in Toronto and other urban areas on this front.

“This probably indicates that the car is still more attractive in terms of travel time or convenience,” said Grond, citing sprawl and lack of location-efficient housing as key contributors to slow transit-adoption growth.

“It’s a long process to shift the way we live and work and move in our cities. That’s why (transportation) decisions are so important to get right the first time.”

Canada’s largest metropolitan regions of Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau and Vancouver continue to have the largest percentage of public transit users, representing about 20 to 23 per cent of their respective commuting populations in 2011.

The longest average commute times, according to the survey, are found in Toronto (33 minutes), Oshawa (32 minutes), Montreal (30 minutes), and Barrie, Ont. (30 minutes). Vancouver (28 minutes), Calgary (27 minutes), Ottawa-Gatineau (26 minutes) and Edmonton (26 minutes) are also among the metropolitan regions with the longest commute times.

But about 17 per cent of commuters in Canada take at least 45 minutes to get to work, with those in the Greater Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa-Gatineau and Calgary regions, most likely to be in that group, the agency estimated.

The survey estimated that nearly 1.1 million Canadian worked from home in 2011, led by Toronto (184,350), Montreal (112,630), Vancouver (88,745), and Calgary (42,435).

Municipal planners have been eagerly awaiting the statistics and analysis compiled by Statistics Canada to help manage road infrastructure and co-ordinate public transit services and schedules in different parts of their respective regions.

Transportation researcher Ajay Agarwal said the findings can be used to identify the specific types of travel habits associated with different household types, allowing planners to respond accordingly.

“This allows us to study the spread of morning commutes,” said Agarwal, assistant professor at Queen’s University in Kingston. “For example, we could look at interventions that could be brought into cities with large concentrations of immigrants so (these newcomers) become more used to public transit, as opposed to just getting in the car.”

The survey analysis also included new information about duration of trips and the time people leave their homes. But Martin Turcotte said the agency didn’t have enough resources to produce a detailed report, similar to what it prepared in 2006.

“A choice had to be made,” Turcotte said in an interview. “We decided based on our resources and the time available and the staff to have a shorter version . . . focused and actually more general analysis than what was done before.”

mdesouza@postmedia.com

mharris@postmedia.com

COMMUTING AT A GLANCE:

The following charts list some of the percentages of modes of transportation for some of Canada’s largest metropolitan regions.

Estimated percentage of commuters taking personal vehicle to work as driver or passenger:

Windsor: 91.3 per cent

Regina: 88.6 per cent

Saskatoon: 86.5 per cent

Edmonton: 82.2 per cent

Quebec City: 80.5 per cent

Winnipeg: 78.2 per cent

Calgary: 76.7 per cent

Halifax: 76.6 per cent

Vancouver: 70.8 per cent

Victoria: 70.7 per cent

Ottawa-Gatineau: 70.4 per cent

Toronto: 69.9 per cent

Montreal: 69.8 per cent

Estimated percentage of commuters taking public transit to work:

Toronto: 23.3 per cent

Montreal: 22.2 per cent

Ottawa-Gatineau: 20.1 per cent

Vancouver: 19.7 per cent

Calgary: 15.9 per cent

Winnipeg: 13.4 per cent

Halifax: 12.5 per cent

Edmonton: 11.3 per cent

Quebec City: 11.3 per cent

Victoria: 11.1 per cent

Regina: 4.8 per cent

Saskatoon: 4.4 per cent

Windsor: 3.0 per cent

Estimated percentage of commuters walking to work:

Victoria: 10 per cent

Halifax: 8.5 per cent

Ottawa-Gatineau: 6.3 per cent

Vancouver: 6.3 per cent

Quebec City: 6.2 per cent

Montreal: 5.3 per cent

Saskatoon: 5.1 per cent

Winnipeg: 5.1 per cent

Calgary: 4.9 per cent

Regina: 4.7 per cent

Toronto: 4.6 per cent

Edmonton: 4.1 per cent

Windsor: 3.7 per cent

Estimated percentage of commuters cycling to work:

Victoria: 5.9 per cent

Ottawa-Gatineau: 2.2 per cent

Saskatoon: 2 per cent

Winnipeg: 2.0 per cent

Vancouver: 1.8 per cent

Montreal: 1.7 per cent

Quebec City: 1.3 per cent

Calgary: 1.2 per cent

Regina: 1.2 per cent

Toronto: 1.2 per cent

Edmonton: 1.1 per cent

Windsor: 1.1 per cent

Halifax: 1.1 per cent

Toronto: 32.8 minutes

Montreal: 29.7 minutes

Vancouver: 28.4 minutes

Calgary: 27 minutes

Ottawa-Gatineau: 26.3 minutes

Edmonton: 25.6 minutes

Halifax: 23.7 minutes

Winnipeg: 23.3 minutes

Quebec City: 22 minutes

Victoria: 21.8 minutes

Saskatoon: 19.9 minutes

Windsor: 18.8 minutes

Regina: 17.3 minutes

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